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What Lies in the Dark
|pre = -|next = -}} What Lies in the Dark is a short story set on the island of Okoto, and was to be DarkStalker719's entry to the Okoto Writing Contest. However, it was not completed in time. Story Chapter 1 Kadis ran towards the towering stone cliff, her feet clattering across the rocky ground. Behind the Okotan was Jasu, another Islander of Stone, his hammer raised in preparation for battle. Kadis ducked and rolled to the side as Jasu swiped ineffectually at her with the hammer. “Gaahhrr!” he yelled. “You’re supposed to be Makuta! Makuta doesn’t run away!” Kadis looked back at the Okotan. “And you’re supposed to be as fast as they come in the Region of Stone,” she said sweetly. “Clearly Ekimu has been slacking on exercise.” Jasu threw his hammer to the ground, the tool hitting the ground with a clunk. “I hate this game! I hate it I hate it I hate it! Rrrgghh!” “Even when you’re Ekimu, I always have to chase you around! It’s sooooooooooo annoying!” he continued. Kadis walked over to Jasu and picked up the hammer that he had dropped, turning it over and inspecting it for damage. “You know, I have to give these back to my father. He won’t be happy if they are broken,” she said slowly. “That’s it!” wailed Jasu. “No sympathy! No promises that you’ll let me win the next time we play Ekimu versus Makuta!” The Islander of Stone glanced briefly at her friend. “I refuse to give you the satisfaction of victory unless you've actually earned it, and, you didn’t,” she said, “And, on that note, you should probably head home, it’s nearly time to eat.” Jasu looked at her accusingly; “If I didn’t know better, I’d think that you’re trying to get rid of me.” “Always,” replied Kadis, with a smirk. “Now come! The traders leave soon, and I do not think you are capable of walking back to your home.” Kadis watched her friend walk down the mouth of the canyon before he turned to the south and vanished from sight. Kadis took a final glance at the fading silhouette of the Islander of Stone before turning and gazing at the fading sunset. Jasu had been her friend for several years, and was the only Okotan that she personally knew from outside of her village. Sighing to herself, Kadis turned and began to walk towards her home. She had promised her father that she would be home well before sunset, and she was cutting it close. Over the past few months, the Regions had been threatened by increasing numbers of Skull Spider attacks, and several villages had been overtaken. Kadis had spent less and less time with both her father and Jasu, as travel become regions had become increasingly dangerous, and her father had been busy assisting the Protector of Stone, Izotor, as he was the Protector’s advisor. Kadis told herself to hurry up as the shadows around her started to deepen You don’t want to be out here alone at night, she thought to herself. ---- “I’m home!” yelled Kadis as she walked through the entryway of her family’s hut. The building was very large, by the current standards of the Okotans, as benefited her father’s status as the Protector of Stone’s advisor. Kadis set the hammers down on the bench just inside the entryway, and proceeded down the hall towards her room. She passed her father’s room and ducked into her own room. The ceiling in Kadis’s chamber was low; as the room was tucked into a small cave-like space formed by two large boulders, and was decorated with feathers and several small paintings that Kadis had made. The walls were sealed with dried clay, and lined with several small shelves, each one containing a crystal or some other treasured object that the Islander of Stone had found. In the left corner was a small cot set on a flat piece of sandstone, several of Kadis’s mother’s blankets strewn across the top. Above the bed was a small circle of feathers and sandstone, made by her father when she was six, and was unable to sleep after her mother’s death. Kadis walked into her room and strode over to the small shelf at the far side of her room, lined with small glass jars filled with paints. The Islander of Stone reached out and selected a jar filled with crimson paint, before taking a second jar with a deep orange pigment filling it. She sat down on her bed, and reached down and grabbed the sketchpad by the foot of her bed. She still had a few minutes before dinner, and wanted to get some drawing in before eating. Grasping the brush on her bedside table, Kadis dipped the brush into the jar of red paint, and began to create the deep shades of the sunset outside of her room. Kadis finally and reluctantly set the paintbrush down, and got up from her bed. She glanced one last time at her half complete painting before walking out of her room and down the hall towards the kitchen. She reached the end of the hall and ducked under the doorway into the kitchen, where her father, Hireav, was just placing a basket of boiled beans and strips of meat onto the table. Hireav glanced up as Kadis entered the room, his stern gaze fixed upon her. “I thought you would be back sooner,” he said, continuing to glare at her. Kadis rolled her eyes and walked past her father and sat down at the far side of the table. “Don’t you roll your eyes at me, Kadis,” her father growled. “I want you to promise me that you will never stay out that late again.” “I was home before dark,” muttered Kadis. Hireav moved to sit at the opposite side of the table. He gazed at the table in front of him for a long moment before looking up and gazing at Kadis. “When I tell you to do something like this, it isn’t to make you miserable, or to keep you locked up,” Hireav began slowly. “I want you to be safe. I want what is best for you, and sometimes that means I have to make you do something you hate. Do you understand?” Kadis looked to the side before muttering: “Yes, Father.” The two of them ate in silence. Chapter 2 TBA Chapter 3 TBA Chapter 4 TBA Story Notes TBA Characters Islanders * Kadis-Deceased * Jasu * Hireav * Solet Protectors * Izotor Other * The Tormentor in the Shadows Trivia * What Lies in the dark is DarkStalker719's first attempt at writing a canon compliant story, and first story to be set in the G2 storyline.